Supreme Court to rule on Etobicoke Centre election

The Supreme Court of Canada will release a highly-anticipated ruling Thursday which will determine whether the results of last year’s federal election in Etobicoke Centre will stand — or whether a byelection will be held in the coming months.

At issue before the Supreme Court is a section of the Canada Elections Act that permits a result to be overturned if there have been voting irregularities, fraud, or corruption in a vote. The court was asked to set limits on what constitutes an irregularity.

In his ruling, Lederer specifically stressed the irregularities were the result of clerical errors by well-meaning Elections Canada officials, not the product of fraud or intentional wrongdoing.

Wrzesnewskyj has described the case as vital to public confidence in Canada’s voting system.

If the high court upholds the lower ruling, Prime Minister Stephen Harper would have six months to call a byelection.

Since 1949, only five other election results have been nullified by the courts. None of those rulings were appealed and byelections were quickly called.